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Jolly Phonics: The world's leading phonics programme

Jolly Phonics has had a huge impact on global literacy and is used in over 150 countries – supporting countless children to read and write. It uses engaging resources and a multi-sensory approach, appealing to a wide range of learning styles.
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What is Jolly Phonics?

Phonics is a method of teaching reading and writing. It starts with learning the letter sounds of English. Children then learn how to ‘blend’ these letter sounds together to read a word, so that d-o-g becomes the spoken ‘dog’. They then learn how to ’segment’ a word into its sounds, so that the spoken ‘dog’ is heard as d-o-g. This is necessary for writing. To put the learning into practice, suitable ‘decodable’ reading books are used.

Multi-Sensory, Fun and Engaging

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Our programmes incorporate stories, songs, actions, and games – appealing to a variety of learning styles and needs. Involving multiple senses also helps reinforce children’s learning – making it easier for them to remember and apply new skills

Our Phonics resources include a variety of fun and engaging activities such as:

  • multi-sensory animations for formation, blending and segmenting
  • stories, songs, games and flashcards to support learning
  • playful but purposeful whole-class activities to keep children engaged
  • audio and worksheets

A Comprehensive Programme

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We recognise that choosing a Phonics programme is an investment and a decision with long-term impact for your school.

Our Phonics programme:

  • extends from Reception to Year 6
  • is fully aligned with the curriculum and Ofsted requirements
  • is aligned with the Science of Reading (a body of research into how children learn to read and write, and the most effective ways to teach them)

And our programmes don’t stop at Phonics! We continue supporting your pupils all the way through to Year 6 with our Jolly Literacy resources.

Adaptable

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We don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all approach and recognise the expertise of teachers to deliver lessons to suit the specific needs of their pupils. Our range of resources give teachers the freedom to do so, whilst providing the extra support, where needed.

You can also choose the teaching methods that work best for your school – print, digital (Jolly Classroom) or a combination!

The 5 Key Skills

Children are taught the main letter sounds. This includes the sounds made by the alphabet letters and by digraphs, such as /sh/, /th/, /ai/, and /ue/.
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Children learn how to form and write the letters through a variety of multi-sensory methods.
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Pupils are taught how to blend the sounds together to read new words.
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Children learn to segment words, a key skill for writing.
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Children are taught to read and write 72 high-frequency words by learning the ‘tricky’ parts of the spelling.
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    Trusted by Teachers Around the World

    We have championed phonics teaching since 1992. Our programme has been influential in the development and popularisation of phonics – impacting the approach to literacy teaching around the world.

    We have championed phonics teaching since 1992

    Our programme has been influential in the development and popularisation of phonics – impacting the approach to literacy teaching around the world.

    Notable improvements in PIRLS

    2021 results for key adopters of Jolly Phonics. These included Singapore, Ireland, Hong Kong (ranking 1st, 2nd and 3rd place respectively), and England (6th place).

    4-time winner of IPA’s PLS 'Education Publisher of the Year' Award

    The 2024 judges said “Jolly Learning has been active in its part of education for a long time but it’s impressive to see it still broadening its horizons – globally and digitally. It’s an ambitious publisher on a mission.”

    Ways to Teach Jolly Phonics

    Our set of three write-in Pupil Books contains a year’s worth of fun and engaging lesson activities. The corresponding Teacher’s Book provides structured lesson plans and comprehensive support.

    • Multi-sensory, with actions, stories and songs for each letter sound
    • Step-by-step lesson plans provided
    • Continuous revision and consolidation of previous topics
    • Playful but purposeful activities to keep kids engaged
    • Detailed insights on teaching approach provided
    • Preparation for the Phonics Screening Check

    Jolly Classroom has all the tools you need at your fingertips – making lesson planning and teaching a breeze!

    • Aligns with the Science of Reading
    • Simple to set up and easy to use
    • 150+ lessons with fun activities, audio and worksheets
    • Stories, songs, games and flashcards
    • Multi-sensory animations
    • Lesson plans and teaching notes for every lesson
    • Toggle between print or precursive fonts and British or American English
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    Get the best of both worlds by combining digital and print! Same great content, your choice how to teach it.

    • Interactive, engaging activities for whole-class teaching
    • Lesson plans and teaching notes for every lesson
    • Write-in Pupil Books
    • Multi-sensory animations for formation, blending, and segmenting
    • Games and songs to support learning

      Our Best-Selling Jolly Phonics Resources

      Take a look at our most popular products!
      • Jolly Learning 6855

        Jolly Phonics Picture Flashcards

        This box of 60 colourful flashcards is suitable for school or home use. The cards include 17 alternative letter sound spellings, as well as helpful tips and guidance!

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      • Decodable Readers (1)

        Decodable Readers

        Our Decodable Readers offer a range of interesting titles for children learning to read and write with Jolly Phonics. We have recently added Folktales Readers to this range, retelling traditional folktales from around the world!

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      • Activity Books

        Activity Books

        This set of 36-page colour books include fun activities to help nurture key phonics skills. They feature the popular character Inky Mouse and her friends and come complete with clear instructions to guide children through the activities.

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      • Jolly Learning 6820

        Handwriting Books

        These books are engaging resources for extra handwriting practice! Our set of 7 books cover the lower-case letters and digraphs taught in Step 1 of Jolly Phonics. A larger A4 book focuses on the capital letters taught in Step 2 and includes upper-and lower-case matching activities.

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      • Jp Pupil & Teacher Books (1)

        Student and Teacher's

        Pupil Book 1 introduces the main letter sounds and the first set of tricky words. Books 2 and 3 build on this, covering alternative spellings, handwriting, tricky words, words and sentences, capital letters and alphabet, and guided writing and reading comprehension activities. The Teacher’s Book provides detailed guidance for every lesson and answer keys.

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      Keen to Find Out More?

      Our friendly team is on hand to answer any questions you have about Jolly Phonics. Don’t delay, get in touch to learn more.

      Jolly Phonics FAQ